Update: Come see the Fritz family photo

Amanda Fritz not only took the time to read this story, posted last week, but to comment on it on her election blog. She assured us that she's "proud-to-bustin'" with motherly affection, and that her kids are "super cute." You can read her post and see a big photo on her Web site. Here's a smaller version (her husband's not in it because he took the photo).
-- Andy

The Fritzes

Look out for your children, the election is near.

With less than a month before Portland's primary, city council candidates are elbowing to get noticed. That means ads, of course. And political ads mean babies -- even if you have to borrow someone else's infant to bask in their euphoric cuteness.

What child is this?

Charles Lewis has been running a TV ad (it's also up on his Web site, www.charleslewis.com) that closes with him standing in the nonprofit he started, Ethos Music Center, cradling a baby girl. Not his baby girl, mind you. Lewis and his wife are expecting their first child on June 20. The baby is his niece. Lewis says his sister happened to be in town from Seattle the day they were filming the ad, so he took the chance to get some on-air baby time.

Amanda Fritz also features someone else's baby in her commercial. Fritz just spent nearly $40,000 -- more than a quarter of her public campaign funds -- to run a commercial on Portland cable stations (and online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxQTfWdjZHQ).

The ad is polished and professional, with images of Fritz and Portland scenes framed DePalma-style as a narrator calls Fritz "as a public school mom, nurse and community leader..." As the narrator says "public school mom," the video shows Fritz smiling at a young woman holding a baby. But the woman isn't one of Fritz' three children. It's a friend who works on the West Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District Board holding her infant son.

Not to be left out of the play group, Sho Dozono's grandson -- yes, his real grandson, Akira Chambers -- stars in a YouTube video urging people to vote for grandpa Sho. And donate to him.

The video shows Akira taking a credit card from his dad's wallet and going online to Dozono's Web site to give $500. Sho's daughter, Alison Dozono Chambers, and her husband made the video to surprise Dozono, his campaign manager Amie Abbott said.

A few candidates are aiming beyond the diaper set, but only by a few years. Jim Middaugh sent supporters a five-minute folk song written and sung by his friend, Michael Fuchs (you can listen on Jim's Web site). It's not bad, musically, and packs in so many Portland references -- salmon, beer, Tom McCall -- you expect Ramblin Rod to strum along for a verse or two. The song starts with our hero kissing his wife and daughters goodbye before he bikes off in the rain to work. Middaugh, of course, has two daughters and frequently bikes to work.

The most grating bit of political childishness belongs to Commissioner Randy Leonard (no, that's not a snarky comment about his duct tape jihad). Leonard has a link on his City Council Web site to a video clip of the old Children's Television Workshop show The Electric Company.

That's Morgan Freeman on the right. Randy's in the Easter bonnet.

No kids appear in this kids' TV skit. Just three adult men -- including a young Morgan Freeman -- singing a song called "Randy" (sample lyric, "Randy, I need you.") to a woman in a yellow bonnet. KGW's Randy Neves, tortured by coworkers who found the song online, carried the curse to Leonard's office. Be warned, if you listen, the song will never leave your head.